Well, the raptor doesn't seem capable of flying while raining... I guess Russia only has to wait for bad weather to invade the US with their PAK-FA's...
But seriously I do think the Raptor is overrated. There's too much propaganda around it and I think there's a lot more to it than the eye can meet... Actually Russian planes are very good in their simplicity. The only problem is that they are hard to fly and sold to countries that don't care about pilot training. If you think about it there aren't many russian planes piloted by russian pilots being shot down. For example the MiG-21. In the vietnam war the vietnamese weren't aware of the plane's high roll-rate and many of them just crashed because they couldn't regain control after doing a fast barrel roll... And I can surely say that the MiG-29/Su-27 would give the F-16/F-15 a run for their money...
Of course, the Pak-fa seems to have been made in a kind of a rush since engine problems appeared during a demo flight.
And actually the PAK-FA has nothing to do with western planes. Actually the only resemblence to a western plane I see are the tailplanes that are similar to the F-35's. The engine exhaust nozzles are similar to the Su-27's. All the rest is pretty much new.
The lines for stealthy planes are pretty much the same. You can't make a stealthy plane without resembling a F-22/F-117/F-35, whatever... But the PAK-FA isn't focused 100% in radar invisibility, Sukhoi also considered maneuverability and I think that's what's going to overpower the F-22. Russians are known for their cheap, light and maneuverable aircraft.

@Xpand- The F-22 can fly in rain and snow, they sit out side every day like the F-15's they replaced, they just go in the hangers for maintenance or sever weather, that was one of the requirements for the RAM on the F-22, F-35 and any new stealth plane.

Interesting, just like the F-15 vs Su-27 battle that never was, the F-22 vs T-50 will not happen.

But can't wait to see more of the T-50, and unlike the F-22, I don't see this falling to political pressure, over some stupid stuff saying it is not needed, because it was devolved during the cold war and stuff has changed, when Politicians don't know anything about planes, let alone what it is capable of.

Both F-22 and T-50 Projects were started back in the cold war to go head to head, and as a result ended up having the capabilities of 5 planes rolled into 1: Fighter, EW, RC, AWACS, and Attack Bomber, which equals "Air Superiority" you have to control all these to achieve this. But people forget this, and only see it as a Fighter with one purpose.

As a plane enthusiast I hope Russia Air Force has better luck in seeing there project through to the end, and not end up like us in the USAF with a plane that is only 50% capable, when there was supposed to be 3 variants of the plane for the whole fleet.   

OVERLORD_CHRIS wrote on Aug 24^th, 2011 at 4:01pm:


Eheh, I know the F-22 can fly in bad weather. I was just kidding about that problem with skin implemented sensors.

hyperpep111 wrote on Aug 25^th, 2011 at 7:45am:


Since when do they do anything else?
I think if anything, the F-22 and PAK-FA will be fighting together against the J-20. The J-20 looks to not be a fighter, though, it's probably a long-range strike A/C.
Although with Russia's tendency to sell all their new stuff to other countries that may be hostile to the NATO nations, maybe the PAK-FA and F-22 will go head-to-head.

Quote:

What about the B-2?

RaptorF22 wrote on Aug 25^th, 2011 at 4:12pm:


That one is more based on radar radiation absorving materials, but yeah, I forgot to mention it.

Wow, I thought the curves just scattered the radar waves around like in normal planes. But the B-2 also has a flat bottom, which is very common in stealth fighters. That's probably because it reflects the radar waves away from the radar reciever since the radar waves' angle of reflection must be the same as the the angle of incidence, right?

What I don't understand is the purpose of the angles of the wings and tailplanes, for example in the F-22, having to be equal, leading edge to leading edge and trailing edge to trailing edge. And on the B-2 the jagging of the trailing edge also has parallel lines.

Well seeing that they announced the F-22 will be flying once again near the beginning of fall, I'm sure we'll learn more about her. As well as the F-35.

-Jake